LEGUME PERSPECTIVES It’s wonderful to sail the Fabaceous Sea! Legumes in the Mediterranean agricultures The journal of the International Legume Society Issue 10 • October 2015 IMPRESSUM ISSN Publishing Director 2340-1559 (electronic issue) Diego Rubiales CSIC, Institute for Sustainable Agriculture Quarterly publication Córdoba, Spain January, April, July and October [email protected] (additional issues possible) Editor-in-Chief Published by Carlota Vaz Patto International Legume Society (ILS) Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier Co-published by (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) CSIC, Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Córdoba, Spain Oeiras, Portugal Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier [email protected] (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Oeiras, Portugal Technical Editor Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia Aleksandar Mikić Office and subscriptions Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops CSIC, Institute for Sustainable Agriculture Novi Sad, Serbia International Legume Society [email protected] Apdo. 4084, 14080 Córdoba, Spain Front cover art Phone: +34957499215 • Fax: +34957499252 Navigare trans Marī Fabaceārum mirabilis est! [email protected] by Aleksandar Mikić Assistant Editors Mike Ambrose Ramakrishnan Nair John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center, Shanhua, Taiwan Paolo Annicchiarico Pádraig O‟Kiely Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Teagasc, Grange, Ireland Centre for Fodder Crops and Dairy Productions, Lodi, Italy Dejan Pajić Birte Boelt University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad, Serbia Aarhus University, Slagelse, Denmark Ana María Planchuelo-Ravelo Beat Boller National University of Córdoba, CREAN, Córdoba, Argentina Agroscope, Zurich, Switzerland Diego Rubiales Ousmane Boukar CSIC, Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Córdoba, Spain International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Kano, Nigeria Christophe Salon Judith Burstin Institut national de la recherche agronomique, Dijon, France Institut national de la recherche agronomique, Dijon, France Marta Santalla Marina Carbonaro CSIC, Misión Biológica de Galicia, Pontevedra, Spain Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione, Rome, Italy Petr Smýkal Branko Ćupina Palacký University in Olomouc, Faculty of Science, Department of Botany, University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Agriculture, Novi Sad, Serbia Olomouc, Czech Republic Vuk Đorđević Frederick L. Stoddard Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia University of Helsinki, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Gérard Duc Helsinki, Finland Institut national de la recherche agronomique, Dijon, France Wojciech Święcicki Noel Ellis Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Plant Genetics, Poznań, Poland International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Richard Thompson Patancheru, India Institut national de la recherche agronomique, Dijon, France Sara Fondevilla Rajeev Varshney CSIC, Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Córdoba, Spain International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Bernadette Julier Patancheru, India Institut national de la recherche agronomique, Lusignan, France Carlota Vaz Patto Branislav Kovačević Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier University of Novi Sad, Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment, (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Oeiras, Portugal Novi Sad, Serbia Margarita Visnhyakova Judith Lichtenzveig N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry, Curtin University, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Perth, Australia St. Petersburg, Russia Kevin McPhee Ping Wan North Dakota State University, Fargo, USA Beijing University of Agriculture, College of Plant Science and Technology, Aleksandar Medović Beijing, China Museum of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia Tom Warkentin Aleksandar Mikić University of Saskatchewan, Crop Development Centre, Saskatoon, Canada Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia Christine Watson Teresa Millán Scotland‟s Rural College, Aberdeen, UK University of Córdoba, Departmet of Genetics, Córdoba,Spain Daniel Wipf Fred Muehlbauer Institut national de la recherche agronomique / AgroSup / USDA, ARS, Washington State University, Pullman, USA University of Bourgogne, Dijon, France EDITORIAL CONTENTS e are pleased to CARTE BLANCHE present this 10th 4 Diego Rubiales: Legumes in Mediterranean agriculture issue devoted to RESEARCH the legumes in the W 5 Eva Madrid, Mariem Bouhadida, F. Sara Dolar, Mohamed Kharrat, Chafika Houasli, Mediterranean agriculture. Josefa Rubio: Chickpea production in the Mediterranean Basin Legumes are important everywhere, but nowhere they are 8 Letice Gonçalves, Diego Rubiales, M. Carlota Vaz Patto: Grass pea prospective at the Mediterranean Basin most introduced in the diet and culture than is Mediterranean 10 Marcelino Pérez de la Vega, Richard Fratini: Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) countries. The current situation and 12 Paolo Annicchiarico, Imane Thami-Alami: White lupin improvement for countries of the challenges and perspectives for a Mediterranean basin srange of legume crops in the area 15 Paolo Annicchiarico: Alfalfa improvement in the Mediterranean Basin are presented and critically 18 Svetlana Vujić, Branko Ćupina, Pero Erić, Đorđe Krstić: The role of sainfoin in discussed by a number of authors Mediterranean region from different countries. At the 20 Aleksandar Mikić: Around the world in two centuries or why French serradella International Legume Society, we (Ornithopus sativus) should return to its Mediterranean homeland hope that the information provided 22 Lucia Lioi, Angela Rosa Piergiovanni: Common bean cultivation in the Mediterranean here will be useful to the readers Basin and further cooperative research 25 Diego Rubiales: Pea in Mediterranean agriculture and development on legume crops. 27 Aziza Zoghlami Khélil, Salah Benyoussef, Majid Mezni, Hakima Saïdi Missaoui, The importance of legumes in Sana Hanchi, Monia Elayed, Fethi Gouhis, Aïssa Abdelguerfi, Meriem Laouar, Mediterranean agriculture can be Panayiota Papastylianou, Dimitrios Bilalis, Harun Cicek, Serkan Ates, Muhammad Dost: seen also from the fact two out the Berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) in the Mediterranean Basin 10 projects granted by the FP7- 29 Branko Ćupina, Svetlana Vujić, Sanja Vasiljević, Aleksandar Mikić: Annual clovers in ERANet ARIMNET (Coordination Mediterranean area for Agricultural Research in the 31 Ángel M. Villegas-Fernández, Diego Rubiales: Trends and perspectives for faba bean Mediterranean Area; http://www. production in the Mediterranean Basin arimnet.net) in its first call dealt 34 Eva María Córdoba, Salvador Nadal, Clara Isabel González-Verdejo: Common vetch with legumes. These were the now production in Mediterranean Basin terminating MEDILEG (http:// 37 Aleksandar Mikić, Vojislav Mihailović: Several less-read articles from Viciapaedia - On www.ias.csic.es/medileg/) and some neglected and wild vetches with benefits for the Mediterranean agricultures REFORMA (http://reforma. 40 Raúl Domínguez-Perles, Valdemar Carnide, Guilhermina Marques, Isaura de Castro, entecra.it) projects. Hope that these Manuela de Matos, Márcia Carvalho, Eduardo Rosa: Relevance, constraints and perspectives of cowpea crops in the Mediterranean Basin initiatives can follow up helping to bridge along the Mediterranean JOURNALS sides because a long term 43 Legume and Groat Crops multinational and multidisciplinary BOOKS cooperation is needed for the reinforcement of legume 44 Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Cool Season Grain Legumes - Marcelino Pérez de la Vega, Ana María Torres, José Ignacio Cubero, Chittaranjan Kole (editors) cultivations in the area. Thanks to all the authors for 44 The Search for Wild Relatives of Cool Season Legumes - Gideon Ladizinsky, Shahal Abbo their valuable contributions. Thanks EVENTS to all that with their voluntary 45 Global Year of Pulses - 2016 efforts are making possible this 47 International Conference on Pulses, Rabat, Morocco, 13-15 April 2016 Legume Perspectives journal and 51 Second International Legume Society Conference, Tróia, Portugal, 12-14 October 2016 our growing Legume Society. Diego Rubiales Managing Editor of Legume Perspectives Issue 10 Legume Perspectives 3 IssueIssue 10 6 •• JanuaryOctober 2015 2015 Carte blanche to… Legumes in the Mediterranean culture egumes are crops with extraordinary historical importance in the Mediterranean basin. They are protein-rich and integral L part of the Mediterranean diet, already used since prehistory. Grown in rotation with cereals, they improve significantly soil fertility and minimise the use of inorganic nitrogen fertilizers, contributing to a sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture in the region. This was already noted by ancient Greek and Roman authors such as Theophrastus, Cato, Columella or Pliny. Despite their importance, the production of food legumes is decreasing in most of the Mediterranean farming systems. A major cause for this is the low and irregular yield as a consequence of ...Diego insufficient breeding efforts. Additionally, the recent socio-economic and political context discouraged farmers to grow these crops. Increasing Rubiales importations is the general rule in the Mediterranean countries. In spite of this regressive pattern, producers, manufactures and consumers are demanding more food and feed legumes. Mediterranean consumers love their legumes, being a major component of many traditional